Overview of Research Methods

1. Overview of Research Methods

2. Research Methods • Historical (Qualitative and Quantitative) • Philosophical (Qualitative and Quantitative) • Descriptive (Qualitative and Quantitative) • Experimental(Quantitative)

3. Research Methods • Research methods provide systematic approaches for the plan, conduct, and evaluation of research.

4. Process of Research • Ask a question; pose a problem • Review the literature • Meta-analysis • Systematic Review of Literature • Plan hypotheses • Conduct the research • Conduct the analysis; planned and systematic • Quantitative • Qualitative • Consider the results • Reliability • Validity (Internal and External) • Draw Conclusions

5. Planning the Research • Write down your ideas • How are ideas, questions, or problems generated? • Scholarship • Understanding • Grasp • Utilization • Criticism • Develop models; alternative ways to represent your information • Feedback • Comparison • New

6. Information about a broad topic area Discovering and uncovering information and literature available on a topic Information and literature to support ideas on narrow strand

7. Determine limitations and issues related to generalizability of your study results • Limitations • Delimitations • Definitions

8. Historical Methods

9. Historical Research Defined • Examination of what occurred in the past • Historians explain change over time

10. Clear Question/problem • Formulate a question/problem • Collect source materials • Criticize source materials • Formulate hypotheses to explain events or conditions • Draw conclusions

11. Process of Historical Research • Collect facts • Select facts • Verify facts • Classify facts

12. Examples of Sport History Journals • Journal of Sport History • International Journal of Sport History • Canadian Journal of Sport History

13. Context • Good forms of historical research place the idea in context • Integrate time, places, people, and events

14. Primary Sources • Eye witness • Autobiography • Letters • First hand knowledge Get lots of views!!!

15. Secondary Sources • Books • Newspapers • Second hand reporting • Textbooks

16. Official Records • Federal • State • Local • Church/Synagogue/Mosque/Temple • Professional Organizations

17. Personal Records • Diaries • Autobiographies • Letters • Wills • Deeds • Contracts

18. Oral Tradition • Myths • Folklore • Dances • Games

19. Pictures • Photos • CDs • Microfilm • Microfiche

20. Published • Newspapers • Pamphlets • Brochures • Magazines • Books

21. Mechanical Records • Tapes • Records • CDs • On-line source materials

22. External Criticism • Authenticity • Is the article really written when it was supposed to be written? • Is the article really written by whom it was supposed to be written?

23. Internal Criticism • Accuracy of the record • Record of agreement among the sources

24. Historical Research • Descriptive • lists names and dates • analyses of who, what, where • Analytic or interpretive • analyzes how and why • Draw conclusions

25. Modern Trends • Quantitative and qualitative approaches • Oral history • Video history • Electronic sources

26. Ordering the Document • Chronologically • By subject matter • A combination of chronology and subject

27. Problems Encountered in Historical Research • Overuse of secondary source materials • Not enough internal criticism • Poor weaving together of thoughts • Lack of context, need to ground information in an historical context • Personal bias • Poor writing style • Insufficiently thought out methodology • Poor record keeping

28. Historians Use a Different Way of Searching for the Truth • Must love to read • Must love to work alone • Must like detective work • Must be able to stick to it • Must love to write

29. Historians Investigate • Individuals • Institutions • Organizations • Laws • Curricula • Administrative structures • Textbooks • Programs

30. Examples of Historical Research in Kinesiology • Study of intramural programs • Development of women’s athletics • Play patterns of a specific culture

31. Examples • Heracles at Olympia and the Exclusion of Women in the Ancient Olympic Games (Mouratidis) • An Outline of the History of Women and Western Sport in Japan (Seiwa) • Transgressions and Transcendence: Surpassing Disciplinary Boundaries (Wughalter)

32. Philosophical Methods

33. Philosophical Research Defined • Philosophical research examines phenomena by using the processes of induction and deduction and then logically determining their implications. • In philosophical research an investigator presents a case for a particular perspective or develops a concept, theory, or position by using the methods of induction and deduction.

34. Induction • Inductive reasoning is based upon empirical observations (data) where science moves in the direction from data to theory.

35. Deduction • Uses the syllogism (based 2 statements and 1 conclusion) • All men are mammals. • All mammals are mortal. • All men are mortal. • - All men are mortal. • - All women are immortal.

36. All men are mammals. • All mammals are mortal. • All men are mortal. • OR • If A=B, and B=C, • Then A=C B A C

37. In a syllogism the two statements are used to deduce (to make inference) the conclusion.

38. Ideas for Philosophical Research • Should physical education programs be adopted on an everyday basis in public school physical education? • What are the purposes of adapted physical education? • Should the IOC conduct DNA tests to determine athletes’ sex? • Should athletes be able to genetically engineer their bodies for sport? • Should professional baseball players be role models for young athletes? • Should we allow special suits to be worn for swimming?

39. Examples of Philosophical Research • The Philosophical Conflicts in Men’s and Women’s Athletics (J. Hult) • Sport, Sex Roles and Sex Identity (M. Ann Hall) • Women in Sport: The Synthesis Begins (C. Oglesby) • Knowledge and Kinesiology (S. Estes) • I Hit a Home Run!” The Lived Meaning of Scoring in Games in Physical Education (N. P. Wessinger)